The Taiwan Thinktank yesterday urged political parties to pay attention to China’s democratic development and refrain from falling into an “economic diplomacy” trap, which it said has replaced human rights with money power.
In a report published yesterday, the think tank said China has launched “global economic diplomacy” in the attempt to expand its global domination. It has increased its investment in the eurozone and hopes to salvage the European economy and has done the same in Africa in a bid to expand its influence on that continent.
Facing China’s “economic diplomacy,” the report said more Western countries are avoiding the issue of human rights, a move that worries international rights groups.
“In the past, the US and European countries attached great importance to freedom, democracy and human rights. They did not mind offending China if necessary,” the report said. “However, since US President Barack Obama took office more than two years ago, Western countries seem to avoid such a sensitive issue.”
While most governments offered strong support for the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s choice of Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) as the peace prize laureate, the report said it was “puzzling” to see many Western countries show a “near cowardice” in dealing with China, adding: “It is regretful to see such political pragmatism in action.”
The think tank’s report came two days after Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog, accused Western governments of “near universal cowardice” in their dealings with China, saying in its World Report 2011 that these countries preferred opaque talks to taking a vocal stand against repression.
The Taiwan Thinktank said it was unprecedented for China to stress in a joint statement with a US leader — as in the statement by Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in Washington last week — that “there should be no interference in any country’s internal affairs.”
“It is shocking that the US seems to have forsaken its fundamental principle of defending democracy and human rights for the world,” the think tank said.
It noted that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in his New Year address that democratic values are not a monopoly of the West and Taiwan should strengthen its soft power, therefore Ma’s administration should be bold in criticizing China’s poor record on democracy, freedom and human rights when necessary.
Taiwan was bound to suffer if it continues to make concessions to China and falls into Beijing “economic diplomacy” trap, it said.
It said it hoped Ma would turn his words into action this year and speak up for Tibet and Chinese dissidents such as Liu.
In his New Year address, Ma reiterated that Taiwan’s future should be decided by its people.
“The two sides of the Taiwan Strait should not fight over political power, unification or independence, or international space,” he said. “They should be motivating each other to upgrade core values such as freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
‘NEW NORMAL’: A Japanese official said the drills show that the PLA can carry out large maneuvers without announcement, ‘leaving all of us struggling to respond’ Beijing’s recent naval exercises have left Taiwan and the US “struggling” for a response as the two nations drew different conclusions about the implications of the Chinese military drills, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Sunday. Taiwan has been bracing for China to hold military drills to retaliate against President William Lai’s (賴清德) diplomatic visits abroad, the outlet said, referring to Lai’s Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 tour to Taiwan’s three South Pacific allies, which included stopovers in Hawaii and Guam. Beijing announced partial air traffic restrictions across seven time zones along its coast from Shanghai to Hong Kong over two days. Yet,
CONNECTED: A survey of students from third grade to university seniors showed that 80% had cellphones, spending on average 37.27 hours per week on them Line users in Taiwan made an average of 100 million voice or video calls each day this year, while “like/thumbs up” was the most frequently used emoji in reaction to a message on the service, the Tokyo-based operator of the messaging app said yesterday. The app’s ability to adjust the quality of video and voice calls helps contribute to its frequent use, LY Corp said in a statement. As of Nov. 30, Line users in Taiwan spent an average of about one hour per day on the app, often checking it in the morning for messages that might have come through overnight,
RSS